Tag Archives: trout

The run around

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Why is it that every time you book a date to meet up with your mates and fish, the heavens open and smash your plans to bits.

Well I woke up at 8am to the sound of rain yet again against the window and the sight of black skies. First thing I done was check the river levels of the taff and its colour. Its only over the bank where I live and I can see a fair bit of the river from my window. It was a little high and with  a slight colour to it but fishable. After a quick chat on the phone to Toby about the conditions he was on his way over with Nicholas

It wasnt long before the boys turned up and we were all on our way to fish the Rhondda. By this time the rain was coming down hard and it wasnt looking good for the river. The problem with the Rhondda is that there are so many run offs from the streets and roads that any good amount of rain affects the level and colour. In the space of getting the gear on and setting up, the river was totally unfishable, very disappointing for the boys traveling so far. It was a quick think and we were on our way to the clydach to try to make the most of the day. At this time,  the heaven opened up yet again and the day looked to be a disaster. It was really disappointing and I kind of gave up and thought there was no point of going on but we pressed on and had a look .  When we checked the stream out it was looking perfect and totally fishable but it wasnt for long. About half hour in with a few small trout to hand the river just went like soup 😦  Mother nature was against us this day. But myself,  im damn sure its Toby’s fault, Stormbringer as I call him. After following Nicholas up-stream and watching him take a few trout out of the soup, we all decided to make a move.  On the way back down to the car and after a little chat, we decided to give the Rhondda another look. I didn’t expect much but when we got there the river was running much clearer and looking not too bad. It was still running with a fair old flow but we were just busting to wet a line. For the conditions, we all set up on the french leader with a mix of heavy nymphs. I found myself in the middle of a long fast flowing run with a fair old depth to it so i cast the leader around 10ft up river and laid it on the water. As the indicator came close I rose it out of the water and for a second the indicator stopped so I struck and fish on, on the first cast too.  It was looking good. We all made up for the lack of fishing and with a good number of fish to hand. It was great to finally catch a few and give the boys a bit of fun. It all turned out quite well at the end and here are a few photos of our trip out

Toby below with a fine Rhondda trout on the line.

My last trout of the day.

River Taff

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Nice and early start again Tuesday morning on the lower beats of the Osprey’s water.

Lately i’ve been fishing the higher waters but this morning I decided to check out the lower beats down by upper boat for a change. Not a very nice walk first thing but worth a shot. The weather was perfect really, not to cold with plenty of cloud cover and the wind was non-existent. Happy days as I say!

The river was running low for a change and clear as glass, it’s been a while since i’ve seen the bottom so clear with all the rain we have been having lately. I didn’t hang around with setting up both rods, one for the dry and the second as always, the french leader. As I was sorting out what flies I was going to use, I could see a few small splashy rises on the far side of the river so I thought i’d have a play around with a small nymph on the french leader. The water was quiet low and slow where they were, so I pulled off around 2ft of 3lb stroft and attached it to the indicator and then a small 1.5 gold head pt. After greasing the indicator I made a few short casts besides a small rock that was on the end of the glide and pretty much straight away the leader slipped away up-stream and I was greeted with a small grayling.  After playing around, catching a few more, I left them to it and moved on looking for a few trout in the little deeper runs further up river. There was no fly life that I could see so I stuck with the nymphs on the leader, just picking my way up through the weed beds with a few trout for my efforts.  As the runs got a little deeper I  made the set up a little longer and put a dropper in to cover two depths. It was working quiet well with fish falling to both flies so I left the set up as it was and carried on picking up good numbers of trout and grayling. The grayling were not big but very welcome anyway.

As I moved up river, I could see someone else fishing and when I got close I could see that is was my mate Robert. I could see that he was having a little fun on a few fish rising in a long pool. As I got up to him, he was into a grayling and then another not long after. We sat around chatting and then moved on to the next run together. I handed over my 10ft 3wt streamflex and gave a few pointers on using the french leader in the shallow fast run. It wasn’t long before Rob was into his first grayling and he took to it like a duck to water really.  We went fish for fish for a bit before deciding to make a move up river again and fish anther pool that fishes really well on times. Rob moved in to fish the pool and I made a move up river to leave him in peace  so at this point we parted company. As I moved up river picking a few more trout off with the nymphs and the dry, I had to cut it short because of a phone call.  It was a good day and a mixed bag so i’ll leave you with a few photos of Rob and a few more Trout that I had to hand after parting company.

River Taff

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Decided to hit the Taff nice and early this morning and I was on the river for around 6.30. Due to the overnight rain, the river was running with colour and I did think it was be a waste of time on looking at it first but I knew at some point in the day it would clear a little so I pressed on.

I didn’t really know where to start on the river this morning due to the colour so I headed up river for the shallow runs and pools that I knew for. On being so early and still quite cold there was no fly life buzzing around so the french leader was set up with only one 2m hares ear jig.  Not a very heavy fly but I was only fishing the margins and little ripples and glides,  just picking my way up river slowly.  It seamed that I was flogging a dead horse but after covering a few runs I finally managed to catch one small trout in the edge. Not very big but I was very gracious of catching the wee fella in the conditions.  By the time I worked my way up river a fair distance without catching a single fish, I decided to sit down and just chill for a bit just watching the water and wildlife. It’s surprising what you see if you open your eyes and keep still.  I was lucky enough to watch a King Fisher on the far bank doing what they do best.  On this part of the river its quite wide and my zoom on my camera was not good enough to take the  picture, gutting really but I am saving for a new zoom  lens 🙂 As the morning started to warm up, the fly life started to kick in with a few small olives coming off and I did push a few brook duns off the bank side while walking up river. It was just one of them days on the fishing side. It seemed that the river was void of fish and movement. As the day went on with only one fish to hand I was feeling a little daunted and my mind was wandering of the fishing.  I made one last ditch attempt to find fish by getting out of the river and walking up river a few miles. By the time I got to the place I wanted to be, the river was clearing off nicely.

This is where i stept in above

The flow was a little faster where I ended up so I had to change the setup, I pulled off around 4 feet of 3lb stroft ABR and tied in a dropper around 18″  from the point fly. As always I had a Hares ear jig and on the dropper a PT flash back. The decision  to move up river and changing the set-up was a good idea, it all come together and fish started to come to hand in no time. I was quite glad really.  In the photo above on the left hand side you can see a large boulder and this is where this little beauty come from below

As I was releasing this trout the heavens opened up and I mean it was hammering down to say the least. I took cover for a few minutes until it passed over and carried on fishing. As i was moving on,  I came upon a long pool with a few fish rising in the back edge and along the far bank. I slipped the dry rod off my back and set it  up with a 15ft tapered leader that Kieron Jenkins kindly got me, for the fly I used a size 16 olive pattern. There were a few Blue wings around and a few iron blue duns. I couldn’t really see what they were taking so i took a chance and after the second cast, the fish took the fly as sweet as a nut!. A few more came to hand after the first one and it was going well until I got to the middle of the pool and for some reason it went dead,  so after that I made my way back down river to get closer to home because it was getting quite late in the day. As i moved back down from where I came from I could see a few fish on the fin, so I had a play around before making a move home.

Frenching it throught the Rhondda

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 As always the weekends go so fast and Monday morning is on us before we know it but this week wasn’t so bad because me and my mate Nicholas Steedman arranged a trip on the Rhondda mid-week.

The morning came and the rain with it! I think he must be some sort of relation to Toby aka Storm-bringer. Whenever he tells me he’s coming over the bridge for a trip the heavens open and the rivers rise. Toby& Nick , next time just come over and don’t say nothing please :).   Well as I was saying the rain was in and the wind started to pick up and this was all before we even placed a foot on the river bed. Nick picked me up at 10am and after a quick check of the gear we were off to fish the Rhondda. This was Nicks first visit so I was hoping he would like the river and I had my fingers crossed that the river would perform.

 The conditions were not ideal at first and I wasn’t very optimistic of catching because it was up about 6″ and coloured, six inches don’t sound a lot but in the Rhondda it means a hell of a lo., the flow of water is crazy for such a small river. It’s difficult wading at the best of times.  As for the conditions, the dry fly rod was left behind and the bugging rod was the answer. Nick set up the french leader and I done the same and after a quick chat about what flies we were using and depth we moved onto the first run of the day. Myself,  I had around 6ft of tipped with a dropper about 18″ from the point. The point fly was a 3m gold head hares ear and on the dropper I had a black 2.5 flash back pt.  After a few casts with no success I decided to fish the water at my feet and close to the bank. After only a few flicks I was into my first Rhondda trout of the day on the point fly. I stepped back and Nick followed with catching around four trout out of  the head of one pool, not the biggest of fish but all were in top condition and their stomachs where all fat. They were on the feed big time. It rained for a few more hours but not hard so the river started to clear up and the fishing just went wild. Nick was taking full advantage of the river, pulling trout from everywhere, the smile on his face said it all, It was a tag team. Nick was fishing the left bank and I was fishing the right bank. we slowly moved up river taking fish in the shallows and glides. I think Nick was well impressed with the river and the quality of fish.

Nicholas below

Moving up river into the long runs and deep holes we started to pick up one or to better fish. Nicholas moved on to the right hand side of the river where there was a run along side a wall, it didn’t look deep but looked a good spot for fish to lie up out of the current. It was one of them spots where there was nothing else to hide behind so he was on a winner. He caught 5 trout that I seen so he was on the ball fair play, nice going Nicholas.  As that little spot went quiet we slowly fished the ripply water leading up to a small weir. Nicholas moved in for the kill and had five cast and five fish. It was really good to watch. After dragging him out of there 😉 we moved on up into a pool where I’ve had some amazing fishing in the past in a similar condition. I had the first few casts this time and managed a few before Nicholas moved in. After taking a few out at the back edge, Nicholas pitched his nymphs into the main flow and as the leader was going through the run, the leader stopped and he lifted into the take but it just stopped dead! His rod was double to say the least and all this time the pressure was on and there was nothing he could do. The line just went across the river and so slow you could see the line going back and for, it was a big, big fish. The pressure he put on didn’t even change the fishes mind, it was like it didn’t even know it was hooked. It moved across the flow and went into a snag and that was that. I feel for you brother 😦  I’m still gutted. Would have been great for you to catch a monster on your first outing on the river. There is always next time and ‘im sure you will be back soon.

I’ll leave you on that and here’s a few photos of the great day we had.

The Cynon outing

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I had a phone call last night off Kieron jenkins asking if i would be interested in fishing the Cynon with him. I’ve never fished the river before so it was a good opportunity to have a look and it’s always an experience fishing with Kieron to say the least ;).

After a quick journey on the train in the morning, i met with kieron and off we set to fish the Cynon. Seeing the river for the first time kind of reminded me of the river Rhondda but not has rocky. I couldn’t wait to set up and get a fly in the water like always. As we havent had much rain for the past few weeks, the water level is very low so we decided to go for fish for fish. I set up on the dry,  Size 16 cdc olive and Kierion set up the french leader. With the conditions, using the leader, kieron pulled off around 3ft of nylon and attached that to the indicator and then from there the nymph, he used a 2m flashback ptn. Cracking all round pattern for any river and conditions.  The weather seamed to be holding for us with heavy cloud cover and the odd glimpse of sunshine breaking through and the odd small shower.

As we moved up river seeing a good few fish rising we thought it was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel, but it wasnt to be. They were highly spooky and just didn’t want to know the dry. We came to the conclusion that they must have been picking up midges or something. Kieron tried all kinds of flies but only managed one. Just one of them things i think. The leader was more effective so that’s what we did for the rest of the day with the odd flick of the dry with no success.

Kieron below holding a fine brown trout

As we picked our way through all the pocket water and runs we came across, we found that we would only pick one fish out of each pocket and run and no more. The fishing was quite hard and in some parts where you would think you would pick one out it was dead.  Hard fishing but great fishing,

There were a few sherry spinners around, a few Blue wing olives and the odd brook dun but it didn’t help with the dry fly fishing so we just kept on plugging away with the nymphs  picking a few more trout out. At this time it was getting quit late in the day and we were both running low on energy   so we called it a day.

Brook dun below

Just a few more photos of are day below

We will be fishing it again when we have a little rain and the level is a little higher so we can see if it makes any difference on the numbers. All in all a great days  fishing and great company and as always i learned a few things off my good mate Kie

A photo of the river when we were leaving below

Taffing it again

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I havent had much chance to get out for a bit it so i made the most of it by hitting the river first light hoping to bump into a slab feeding on the sherry spinners from the previous day. Well that’s what i was hoping on. There were a few around but nothing on the fin so the french leader was set up on my greys 10 ft with around 6 ft of stroft ABR to the point fly ( 2.8m Hares ear) and on the dropper ( 2m PT flash back around 20″ from there.

The water  level is so low at the moment and the river is on its bones and in a few places the weed has been exposed so bad that all you can see is weed and no water. Its made a few good places really hard to fish.

Hitting the back-end of the run fishing the opposite side of the fast water i made a few short casts into the fast water to see if they were in the flow and letting the nymphs come round me and bringing them back up in the water column with a few short jerks to see if i could induce a take, after a few tries i managed to take one brownie. After moving on up the run a little further i started to fish the slack water amongst a few  submerged boulders where i have had a few monsters in the past. But nothing this time.

As i moved out of one run into anther long run with a good flow i thought I would spend a little more time fishing the leader with one  small nymphs on, after only a few casts i was into a grayling in the half  a lb range. Slipping that one lovely lady back i was quickly into a second and a third and a fourth so on, I managed six in one part of the run in no time.  with  that little bit of excitement i moved in to the head of the run where its a little deeper and where there are a few large boulders sticking out of  the flow. This called for a larger nymph, 3.5m tunsten hares ear pattern with a red tag for the tail, i picked out three not bad size trout out after a little bit of persuasion. Few photos of the run and its inhabitants

Just a few random shots of the day

.

River Taff early bird

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As i opened my eyes at 6am to find the alarm to throw it at the window, i realised if i did, the taff would have been flowing through my house! The rain was bouncing off the window making hell of racket. So i headed out of the house about 6:30 to head towards the middle of the Taff.. Thinking it was a bad idea.

As i hit the river i set up my two rods, one on the dry and one on the french leader.. On the french leader rod i set a 6 ft leader up about 18 inches between the flies. My plan was to set up with 2 2mm tungsten bead jigs to fish the back ends of the runs, and then work my way to the faster water at the head of the pools altering the weight of the flies.

Managed to take a few fish while i was working my way up, towards the sides of the runs, as the water was going up the fish seemed to have pushed to the edges out of the main flow. Some fish were seen jumping and moving but nothing really as there wasnt a great hatch of flies on.

Slowly moving up river and the conditions getting worse i decided to set the camera up and video myself using the french leader in a place where the river had split from the main flow. Have a look to see how it turned out… Sorry for any bleeps i made but you will see why 🙂

After this fish, the river started to rise and colour up even more so i thought that’s enough for today, so i headed home with the hood up because it was absolutely tamping down.. Its always the same ai, i get days off work and the weather goes to hell 😦

I wasnt out that long but well worth it with well into double fingers to hand, not bad really considering the conditions.

Fly fishing my old home Stream

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I found myself going back home today to fish the stream that i havent fished in a good while and where i was first shown the noble art of the drowning a worm  by my older brother. Much has changed since then and its all fly for me these days.

The weather was not up to much being over cast most of the day with little odd glimpses of the sun breaking through the cloud cover, but what made things a little tricky was the down stream wind that i had to put up with throughout the day.

It’s not the largest of streams, it’s around 6 to 8ft wide at the most but as wild as you can get it. Most of the stream is covered over by bushes and trees but there are a few places that open out in to open fields so the casting becomes much more easy and instead of being on your knees you can straighten the  back and cast from the bank in confute.

Before i even set my greys 8ft up on the dry i sat back and just watched the water for a bit just taking in my surroundings and watching the water for any movement. I started watching one part of the stream where there were a few rocks that had slipped in the water from the bank forming a small eddy just off the fast water in a small run.  Just after a few minutes i seen a small splashy rise so that was my q to get moving so on with a size 16 hairs ear klink with a white post so i could pick it up on the dark water surface because of the cloud cover and away i went stalking the rise. I got on my knee and made a short cast  above where the fish moved and as soon as the fly hit the water a fish took the fly. Grease lightning had nothing on this little fella. The take was just savage and after a few jumps he was in hand and a quick photo and away to sulk. This was the first fish of the day but many followed after. I  just love the colours on these little wild trout, just beautiful.

After catching that fish i started to work my way upstream fishing behind every stone i could find, anything which give an eddy, slack spot or bulge of water flicking the fly into every likely looking spot with a few missed takes and a few to hand. I come to a corner that looked a little deeper so i set the klink and dink up with a small 2m gold P.T.N on the point and set the video cam up and shot this short video below

After the short video i managed to catch anther lovely wild brown trout on the nymphs in the same run but after a few more cast i knew that the pool was spooked, so i moved on out looking for the next  likely spot to hold anther jem of the stream.

As i made my way up river i come to this spot above in the photo and thought there just has to be something hiding in there 🙂 After a few  cast with a few really fast takes from the very small fish, i managed to land anther little Jem. The trout in the stream are not big but that means nothing to me. They hold everything in their beauty. The red spots and little marking and the white tips are just perfect. Its funny when i was young all i wanted to do is catch big fish but the older im getting the more i like to catch the smaller ones 🙂 Funny how things turn around in time.

At this point in the day i was very happy on how it all went and decided to make a move home and see the family before they had to send a search party out.

I hope you all enjoy the post as much as i enjoyed being back there 🙂

River Taff today

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Today me and my friend Paul Jenkins ‘Bushy’ fished the newly leased ‘Ospreys’ streach of the River Taff at Cilfynydd towards Abercynon.

We met at the Car park in Cilfynyd ind’est at 9am.  We walked to what was the old boundary of the Ospreys stretch and started to walk the newly acquired waters – looking at the pools and debating what methods to use. As always, I took two fly rods, My  Greys streamflex 10ft 3# and My favourite – Greys GS2 8ft 4#. Carrying two rods can sometimes be a pain, but due to the frequent but sporadic hatches of Olives, Yellow mays and Brook duns having two rods enables me to swap and change without re-tying my leaders or methods and cover that fish that s rising before it goes down.

To start, I tackled up with a team of flies on a french leader. My french leader consists of a 9 meter tapered  leader and a duo coloured indicator nylon.

The business end consisted of 6ft of 4lb Stroft ABR and two jigs spaced around 18 inches apart. The flies where basically hears ears with 3mm tungsten heads – gold and black.

After a quick chat with Bushy, we decided to fish – fish for fish. Meaning one of us would fish and the other watching, I like this method of fishing because it allows me to watch different anglers in different situation. As Bushy is one of the top class anglers in the country, it’s always good to keep a sharp eye on what flies ‘he’s putting on and what he’s doing in different water.

We worked our way up the stretch taking around 6-7 fish out of the first 100 yards between us, It was obvious we were doing something right! The river was on good form although being low and clear, the fish were very obliging in taking our nymphs.

Once fishing the fast pocket water, we could see a nice long glide in the horizon! So it was on our bike and towards to pool we went. Creeping and peering through the pea shooters it was obvious this was a big fish pool! And that it was! After carefully negotiating my way across the slow deep pool, trying not to fall in or spook the pool, we got to the fishable side of the pool where the run was on the opposite side and the eddy was in easy reach. It was running about 6ft deep, too deep to wade but just the right depth for me to french nymph. After working the crease closest to me, where the quicker water meets the slack on the inside it was obvious the fish wern’t there! Or was it my flies not getting deep enough? So it was into the box, and on with the 3.5mm tungsten. First cast, indicator stopped and upriver she went, with nothing but my 3 weight rod to stop her I knew I had a fight on my hands. Running, diving and doing everything possible it could to free my hook I gently persuaded her into my net. And after a quick photo, off she went to fight another day.

After taking maybe 20 fish between us,  and working near enough a mile upstream Kieron, Pauls son joined us. Kieron tackled up with basically the same as me, two jigs on a french leader.. although they were from his secret box which doesn’t come out a lot 😉 I have tried to have a look but it seems to disappear quicker than the little minnows in the shallows. He was quickly into his first fish, taking one second cast around the pound mark on a red tag jig. Bushy spotted another just swirl under the surface and the next cast, it was in the net.

Moving swiftly upstream, into a fast but shallow run I could see Kieron was into a good fish. I rushed downstream getting the camera ready and into video mode and into a good position to watch the fish slip into the net, but as he was lifting the rod to lure the fish, the fly came out and the point fly hooked into the adipose fin. Take a look at the video below of how not to land a fish! LOL


 

The river above where we met, started to get wider, slower and deeper. By this time there were not so many flies hatching and the fishing started to slow down. So we started to move to the head of the pools taking the easier fish just to build our numbers up. Not long later we decided to make a move after a long day searching with better than expected results.